Letters: Belief in God essential; losing freedoms

According to Christian teaching, the chief end of man is to know God. That’s why we’re here. But most people, sad to say, spend little or no time getting to know God.

Claiming that we are more enlightened than our “primitive” ancestors and can dispense with belief in God reveals unmatched arrogance. Sir Isaac Newton, whose scientific investigations enlightened mankind about various natural phenomena, was a believer in God and spent considerably more time studying Bible prophecy than doing science. Even today, there are many highly acclaimed scientists and philosophers who believe in the God of the Bible.

Atheists who still desire to discredit the Bible make all sorts of ignorant assertions. For example, it is said that the Bible condones slavery and therefore cannot be used as a moral guide. The Bible does not condone slavery, especially as it was practiced in antebellum America. God does not want anyone to be in any kind of bondage. Yes, the Bible does mention bondservants and how they should be treated, but servitude in ancient Israel was not unlike indentured servitude in the American colonies, many of whose earliest inhabitants immigrated at someone else’s expense.

Finally, a few questions. How do atheists know that slavery is evil? Where does their morality come from? Are they not borrowing God’s own standard of justice to make their case against him? Could it be that their sense of right and wrong comes from having a conscience given to them by God?

Is it too late?

RAYMOND BURCHAM

Dunkirk

Can traditional American freedoms and culture be saved from being relegated to the ash heap of history? It seems that in recent years America’s constitutional religious liberties have been dissolved at a rapid pace. We seem indifferent and oblivious to the decline of our God-given, Founding Fathers-instituted constitutional rights.

Our Founders enshrined the free exercise of religion as the very first freedom in the Bill of Rights. Protection of freedom to religious liberty is the foundation for all the other freedoms we enjoy. There is no such thing as a free society without religious liberty. If we lose our religious liberties in this, our country, we will have lost everything. And we are on the verge of doing that.

Our religious liberties and freedoms are not “politically correct” and are about to be discarded as outdated and bigoted. We who believe the Bible will become known as bigots. Senior citizens, of which I am one, are especially pained by what we see going on. We have seen over the course of our lives where our country has come from, where we are, and where we are headed.

George Washington said, “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits and humbly to implore His protection and favor.”

To fail to do the above will most assuredly relegate us to the ash heap of history. If we do the above, we may find our way back to freedom.